Joulutorttu
Finnish Christmas stars: rough puff pastry pinwheels folded round a spoonful of dark prune jam, dusted with icing sugar and eaten by the handful.
Photograph credit: Joulutorttu and cheese at Factory Kamppi in December 2025 by JIP · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
The star shape only holds if the cuts stop well short of the middle and each folded corner is pressed hard into the centre with a wet fingertip. The prune filling wants to be thicker than seems sensible — a loose jam boils out through the folds and welds the pastry to the tray. Cooking it down until a spoon leaves a clear trail is the fix.
What People Ask
How long does Joulutorttu take to make?
30 minutes of preparation and 30 minutes to 35 minutes of cooking, plus 1 hour 20 minutes of chilling, so allow 2 hours 20 minutes to 2 hours 25 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for cooling completely, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 12.
Photograph credit: Joulutorttu at Antell Martintalo by JIP · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
The Method for Joulutorttu
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Simmer the prunes with the water for 15 minutes, then blend with the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon and cook 5 minutes more until thick enough to hold a trail. Cool completely.
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Rub the flour and salt with the butter only until the cubes are flattened, not rubbed in — visible sheets of butter are what make the pastry flake.
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Stir in the soured cream to a rough dough, wrap and chill 1 hour.
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Roll out, fold in three, turn 90 degrees and repeat twice more, chilling if it softens.
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Roll to 4 mm and cut into 9 cm squares.
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Cut from each corner towards the centre, stopping 1.5 cm short.
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Put a teaspoon of filling in the middle, then fold alternate corners into the centre and press each down firmly with a wet finger.
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Chill the shaped stars 20 minutes, brush with egg and bake at 200°C / 390°F fan for 12 to 15 minutes until puffed and deep gold.
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Dust with icing sugar once cool.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Worth Getting Right
- Chill the shaped pastries before baking. Warm pastry unfolds in the oven and you get squares.
- Stop the cuts short of the centre. Cut all the way and the star falls into four pieces.
- A wet fingertip glues the folds far better than egg wash does.
Serve It With
Glögi, the Finnish mulled wine · Coffee, endlessly · A dish of salted liquorice
Leftovers and Storage
Best on the day, though they keep 3 days in a tin and revive in a hot oven for 4 minutes. The unbaked shaped stars freeze 2 months and bake from frozen with 3 minutes added.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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